The Mid North Coast fares well when it comes to job creation and the Port Macquarie-Hastings has quite wide variation in social structure.
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That was a taste of the insights delivered during social commentator and demographer Bernard Salt’s presentation on September 26.
The Port Macquarie Chamber of Commerce boardroom lunch at Sails Port Macquarie by Rydges attracted 185 people.
Much has changed in Port Macquarie since Mr Salt’s last visit 17 years ago.
One of the noticeable changes is a younger population.
Mr Salt said Charles Sturt University had absolutely transformed the community and it prompted the question of what the community might look like by 2030.
“We should not limit ourselves for the ambition, the boldness, the brazenness of our hopes and dreams and aspirations for the future of our communities,” he said.
“We should be putting it right out there – here is what we think we can do for our community and for Australia more broadly.”
The boardroom lunch heard Port Macquarie was the 30th largest city in Australia as measured by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
The council area is home to about 78,000 people with about 47,000 of those in Port Macquarie.
Mr Salt spoke about looking at the services, infrastructure and successful businesses operating in cities which were a little bigger and how that could be leveraged here.
Mr Salt also delved into the subject of Australian culture.
“You look at the way the Australian culture has shifted over the last 50 years or so,” he said.
“When the Greeks and Italians arrived in the 1950s – out with tea, in with coffee, in with arugula, in with olive oil.
“Who knew what quinoa was five years ago?
“Who knew how to pronounce quinoa five years ago but the colonial Australia says “yes I will have the quinoa salad, thank you very much”.
Meanwhile, Mr Salt said Australians had lost faith in major Christian religious institutions, major political parties, maybe in trade unions and most certainly this year had lost faith in big business.
“Australians have lost faith in big corporate institutions,” he said.
“What they are looking for is local, tribal, authentic relationships.”
The age bracket between 35 and 54 contains 27 per cent of the population in Australia but in Byabarra, the North Shore, Mortons Creek and Lorne, it’s up around 30 per cent.
“I can cite nine suburbs in Port Macquarie where the proportion of the population is in that part of the life cycle where you buy stuff is above the Australian average,” he said.
“These are good figures for Port Macquarie.”
Mr Salt examined areas from religious affiliation to the community’s ethnic composition and volunteer levels.
“Even in a community like Port Macquarie, [with] 70,000, 80,000 people, you get quite wide variation in the social structure,” he said.
“There is a market here for the product and service that you have to offer.”
The Mid North Coast added 30,000 jobs between August 2000 and August 2018 and lost 2000 jobs.
The region is outperforming the Australian average on those figures.
Mr Salt said: “How can we create a Port Macquarie and region which is inclusive, where everyone believes they have a chance of prosperity?
“That’s the great challenge going forward.”